On its first day in government yesterday, Syriza cancelled a privatisation progamme of the ports and energy sector, pledged to re-employ around 15,000 workers, and announced minimum wage and pension rises costing around 12bn euros. The astonishment in Europe cannot be expained by lack of foreknowledge. Numerous journalists who cover Greece, including me, reported in detail what Syriza planned to do: cancel the austerty and privatisations, run a balanced budget and massively hike the tax take from the so-called oligarchs and the black economy. The astonishment comes because all the political centre’s contingency plans come apart.

The president's office said she had been replaced by Philippe Martin. Earlier, Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici announced plans for 14bn euros (£12bn) in savings next year, as he tries to cut the budget deficit. Next year will see the first cuts to government spending in France since 1958, the Agence France Presse reports. Ms Batho, 40, told RTL radio that she disagreed with the 7% cut at her energy and environment ministry. She was then summoned by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. She is the first member of Mr Hollande's government to be dismissed for breaking the convention that ministers should not criticise government policy.
French and Algerian youth filmmakers renegotiate Algeria’s image - Report: France - Marseille Forum.

The film was shown as part of Libération’s Forum in Marseille on 19 and 20 April, entitled “Take action today in the Mediterranean region.”

The series of debates took a look at issues affecting Mediterranean countries and finding positive solutions. Documentary filmmakers Aurélie Charon and Caroline Gillet set out to produce a film that offered a new representation of Algeria, a country often misunderstood by its neighbours, France. Since the Algerian War of independence that ended in 1962, France has very little knowledge of the reality of Algeria today, according to the filmmakers.
French jobless total hits 14-year high. Detenido un periodista por publicar datos de griegos con cuentas en bancos suizos. ‘Third Man’ Mélenchon can no longer be ignored « Revolting Europe.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the radical Left Front’s Presidential candidate, has gained four percentage points in two weeks in opinion polls, a result that would see him take the third spot in the first of the two round vote for France’s head of state.

He would win 15% of the first round on April 22, the LH2/Yahoo poll suggested, overtaking far right Marine Le Pen who was on 13.5%. The same poll gave Socialist Francois Hollande victory in the first round with 28.5% of the vote, against 27.5% for incumbent right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy. For the 6 May second round vote, Hollande would garner 54% and Sarkozy 46%.

Grafitti cakes his entrance hall, there is no heating, the lift has been broken for months and unemployed youths loiter with nothing to do. Even the local mayor calls this place a "vertical shanty town". Five years ago these estates in Clichy-sous-Bois on the edge of Paris exploded in riots that spread across France and led to a state of national emergency. The trigger for the violence was the death of two young boys electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police. But the root cause was the hopelessness of a generation of young French people, ghettoised in dismal suburbs, marginalised and jobless because of their skin colour or their parents' immigrant origins.
Des salariés manifestent au Mondial de l'automobile.